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Location, Location, Location!

Feb 28, 2017 | Canada

A blog post by Dean Shanahan:

When deciding if you want to go on exchange, the most important step is picking an exchange university. You want to pick a university that has a friendly atmosphere; like when buying property, it should be in the right location to be able to experience local culture and to provide for unique experiences. While you may find that many universities possess these features, Simon Fraser University (SFU) not only met them for me, but also gave something a little extra: the opportunity to be in movie or on TV.

SFU’s main campus is just a 30-minute bus ride outside of downtown Vancouver. It is situated atop a small mountain that provides stunning views of the city, the other surrounding mountains and even the ocean. However it’s the universities unique architecture that has made a significant mark with Vancouver’s local film industry.

The film industry in Vancouver is so large that it has been given the nickname “Hollywood North”, some of the architectural elements of the campus could be described as futuristic or even alien in design, which is why most notably the Library and Academic Quadrangle have been used as locations in hit TV shows such as the X-Files, Battlestar Galactica and Stargate SG-1, major films like The 6th Day, the 2008 remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still and the film based off the halo videogame series – Halo: Forward Unto Dawn, have all filmed on the campus. Unlike most film productions which are closed to the public, on occasion, the productions filming on campus will put out calls for background extras to SFU students.

Sadly, the semester I was studying at SFU they put out a call for extras once and I missed out on that opportunity to be an extra because I was off campus travelling for the week. However, many of my friends there have had the opportunity to be a part of films and movies, or at least to be able to watch the filming happen from the sideline.

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